Robert Scoble on What's Important

Robert is devastated by his mother's recent stroke, and is advising us to consider what we would do in a similar situation. But more than that, he is showing how important our connections to the world are when we bump into the big mysteries of loss, death, love, and the passing of things.

Many of you know that a few years ago I suffered a subaranchnoid aneurysm: a blood vessal in my brain exploded. There was a short period of time, like seven hours or so, where it seemed possible that the situation was inoperable: that I would likely die. And even after that time, when an operation was planned, with some likelihood of success, the outcome was not predetermined by any means. Today, I am a poster child for brain surgery with no lasting effects, aside from the experience itself.

I felt then, like Robert, the immense value of my connections to the world, the sense of meaning that comes from knowing that others think that I matter, and my incapacity to express the gratitude that arises from support in dark times.

I am sure that Robert will never be the same again, will never take for granted those things that have been granted to him, will never forget how we are made more by others just when we are made less by loss.

For me, I have the distance of years between me and that grim time. I vowed to drink more champagne, to avoid all assholes, and to write much, much more: I have worked hard to do so. And I am certain that we will see lasting changes in Robert, made deeper by this turn. And of course, we have what he has offered us -- thank you, Robert -- and we are changed, in turn.

[pointer by Jeneane Sessum]